“We had kinfolk from Kansas drive down this weekend just because I promised them we would catch speckled trout without ever launching a

boat,” said Paul Withers. “I never thought about the possibility of a tent or volleyball goal every fifty feet which demolished my Crystal Beach program!”

“We managed to find a little more space at McFadden Monday morning and they were able to take home a couple of bags of fillets. There aren’t

many speckled trout or reds in Kansas so their fish fry will be a treat.”

“I begged them to stay one more day knowing the beach would green up and flatten out Tuesday morning, but there was no way, said Withers. “We

stayed on Crystal Tuesday and a neighbor and I caught two to four pound trout all morning long”

We are going to see more of those kind of days with a north wind becoming the prevailing wind on a more frequent basis. Paul said that if you just want to enjoy fewer but more violent strikes, tie on a chrome/chartreuse Top Dog, but if you prefer a strike on every cast go with a half-ounce gold spoon. For this program, a conventional wobble spoon with a treble hook works just fine.

As predicted by many of the local anglers that have been homesteading the jetties and lower ship channel for months, the trout bite in the lake improved following the hurricane. Ronnie Frederick and Bill Bates found limits two days in a row drifting the Causeway reef and several anglers reported finding more Texas legal trout fishing in the lake under the birds.

Frederick was not bumping the bottom as most local anglers do. Even when it was the accepted technique he fished suspended lures or tails that he could swim on a lighter head.I cannot tell you how many times he returned with limits when the rest of us failed to catch fish at all.

“I am still doing the same thing,” said Frederick, “but I now spend more time catching than hunting fish thanks to the new electronics. Can you

imagine what we would have done with these electronics when the reefs were just covered with big trout? How many times a day did you throw a

marker over the side and hope you could drift it again without company?”

I won’t include his name as he doesn’t care to stir the pot, but an old friend and great crappie guide, says the white perch bite never slowed

down for him last weekend. He noted, “I had a corporate group out of Houston cancel because of Covid and that might have kept more folks at

home.”

His modest complaint was that more and more weekend fishermen simply ride the lake looking for brush piles that they didn’t build. “That’s not

like finding your own piece of natural structure,” he pointed out.

His solution thus far has been to simply add more brush piles. It’s a lot of work,” he added, “but the way I build them they are easy to

re-brush when needed.” He also said that he is still fishing minnows exclusively and the fish he has kept have averaged about a pound apiece.

“I think everyone in the club was either fishing Indian Creek or drifting on McGee’s,” reported Brandon Cook. “We only had fifteen boats

show up as a lot of our members are helping relatives devastated by the hurricane, but ten of the teams brought in five fish limits and the big

bass weighed 7.4-pounds.

“We caught a lot of our bass on a small watermelon or pumpkin brush Hog,” said Cook, “but the winning big bass ate a five inch finesse

worm. We caught and released a boat load of Kentucky bass so they must be doing well!”

“Now that they are getting power back on in more areas we won’t be fishing tournaments for a while,” added Cook. “We have a family living

with us right now that doesn’t even have a home to return to!”

Reverend Bobby Daniel, minister at the First Presbyterian Church, will drive down to the hardest hit parishes in a week or so with gift cards

and donations to help folks struggling to start all over again. The church will also be providing on-campus housing for PDA volunteers still

helping Lake Charles area residents re-build.

If you would like to help these folks and need more information, you can call me at 409-313-3120 or the church office at 409-883-2097.